1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape loading device of a cassette type recording and/or reproducing apparatus suitable for a compact 8-mm VTR with a built-in camera, wherein a tape drawn from a tape cassette is wound around a rotary head drum for recording thereon or reproducing therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional cassette type VTR, a tape cassette is mounted on a chassis in such a way that a pair of tape reels are engaged with a pair of reel disks, and then a tape is drawn from the tape cassette by tape loading means to wind the tape around a rotary head drum and thereafter, recording or reproducing takes place by the rotary head drum while the tape moves at constant speed along its running path. That is, the tape cassette must be located on the chassis at some distance from the rotary head drum, lest the tape cassette, the tape in the tape cassette or the like should unexpectedly come in contact with a rotary drum located at the top of the rotary head drum.
However, placing the tape cassette at a sufficient distance from the rotary head drum prevents the VTR from being made compact. In order to make the VTR compact, it is, therefore, important to minimize the distance between the tape cassette and the rotary head drum.
In order to overcome this problem, it has been proposed to move the rotary head drum so as to bring it near the tape cassette after the tape cassette is installed on the chassis. But the rotary head drum is such an important component of the VTR that it is made with considerable accuracy, on the order of several microns. Therefore, if such a construction were adopted in a practical VTR, unstable factors in tape running are enhanced, and recording and/or reproducing precisions are degraded. Hence, the construction as mentioned above has not been used in a practical VTR.
In the present invention, it is possible to decrease the distance between the rotary head drum and the tape cassette mounted on the chassis, while maintaining stable tape running and high recording or reproducing precision, so as to make a compact VTR.